A little while ago we created a Eurovision commentary channel on Jaiku to enable live commenting around this camp megaspectacle, which is taking place in Helsinki this year.

Around the same time I read a story about the global Finnish humor ambassador Markku from Finland, whose videos had risen among the top 100 most popular comedy clips on YouTube. Although I had never yet met the group behind Markku I could immediately identify with their style. It turned out Markku was getting his own morning show on SubTV, Finland’s leading youth TV channel.

One thing led to another, and soon I was talking with the SubTV head of programming about getting Markku on Jaiku. She thought it was a cool idea, and when Markku’s creators Teemu Niukkanen and Antti Toivonen agreed to go for it we did. Markku started posting on Jaiku pretty much right away, and we issued a press release with SubTV a few days later.

Meanwhile, someone had posted on Jaiku’s Eurovision channel that it’d be cool to get the 2006 Eurovision winner Lordi, a Finnish monster rock group, to join as a commentator. Before I knew it another Jaiku user, Lordi’s good friend Sami Keinänen was driving me to meet the monster. Mr. Lordi, who unmasked is the brilliant vocalist-crafter Tomi Putaansuu, personally liked the idea, and suddenly an international monster superstar was candidly sharing his pre-Eurovision musings on Jaiku in the unimitable style of Northern Finns.

Yesterday during the live broadcast of the Eurovision semi-finals everything sort of came together as Lordi, Markku, and a slew of witty commentators like Arttu Tolonen, Liisa Jokinen, Gita Vainola, and many others let themselves loose on the Jaiku backchannel. The amazing part is how quickly and effortlessly the organizing went – almost as if the pieces of the puzzle assembled themselves. Lordi will open the Eurovision finals tomorrow evening, and we’ll be hosting a Jaiku party at Korjaamo in Helsinki with screens showing the live broadcast and the live commentary on Jaiku. If you’re in town for the event, this is probably not a bad way to experience the spectacle.

The Eurovision Commentary channel on Jaiku: jaiku.com/channel/esc

Markku from Finland on Jaiku: markku.jaiku.com

Mr. Lordi on Jaiku: lordi.jaiku.com